AND! Ifin ya goes with QSI/G-wire, you can set up two boxcars, and or a passenger whatever, with the whole wheely dealy in each and have one car for Diesel, and one for Steam!! That way only buying two decoder setups!! Cost effective!! and it works splendidly too!! Regal
LiIon technology has been in consumer use for several years in the laptop and cell phone industries. When properly protected, and properly charged, I think the technology is safe. It’s the only chemistry that you would have a prayer of fitting in a small boiler shell.
NiCd is tried and true but has some drawbacks… NiMh is more forgiving of bad charge/discharge habits but does not hold a charge worth a darn and it’s said that they have less number of charge/re-charge cycles than NiCd. Sealed Lead-Acid is cheap and nearly bullet proof, but needs almost needs a sixteen wheel tender to carry the weight 
I have recently bought LiIon packs and a charger from all-battery.com - prices were good, shipping was fast and tech support replied quickly, but the answers were short with little explanations.
Edit to add: I started my Porter conversion with one 11.1 Volt 2200mAh pack. Test runs of the Porter did fine on on 11V but I couldn’t cram the pack into the Porter. I changed to two 7.4V 2200mAh packs in series (14.8V) to be able to split the pack in two and stuff it in the tanks. I have not tested it yet, but I’m sure it will do fine. I don’t know what your Climax will require. I tested the Porter using a power pack and seeing if it ran fast enough at 11V.
You’ll have no trouble fitting Li-Ion batteries in that loco.
(http://1stclass.mylargescale.com/eastbroadtop/EBTDinky/EBT3rd216.jpg)
That’s a 7.4 volt, 2200mAh Li-Ion pack under a MyLocoSound sound board with a 1.5" speaker behind it. (The critter control is in the back of the cab.) At 7.4 volts, the porter trundles along at around 15 miles per hour. It’ll run that loco for around 4 hours or more. I don’t know about the specific motor blocks you mention, but a 14.8 volt Li-Ion pack is less than 3" x 3" x 3/4", and should give you more than ample speed, especially for a Climax. I’ll echo the recommendation for All-battery.com. Good prices and fast service. Later, K
Thanks guys that was a great help. I think Im going to try the Li-Ion pack. I should be able to get that to fit.
I’ll also agree on All-Battery–though I have to disagree with the shipping (took a month!). I bought a 14.8v Li-poly 5100mAH–5 inches longx2x1. Pretty nice.
Ok Istarted looking at All Battery Website. All those Numbers mean nothing to me. Here is what I got so far out of the three pages what would work?
7.4V Li-Polymer & Li-ion Battery Packs
http://www.all-battery.com/74vli-polymerandli-ionbatterypacks.aspx?page=2
Shawn,
Size to fit the install is for you to figger out.
Just remember the more Mah, the longer run time.
Japanese cells, (Sanyo, etc), are superior to Chinee cells. IMO.
Shawn,
This is the pack I got from All Battery. Best bang for the buck
http://www.all-battery.com/li-ion18650148v2200mahrechargeablebatterypackwithpcbprotection.aspx
The pack is flat. I’ve run it 3 or 4 times without recharging, including Thursday when it did about 4 hours duty around the Christmas tree.
I’ve also bought two of these from Rick at Cordless Renovations. I’ve not installed them yet, but they will fit in most boilers.
Rick also includes the male/female connectors.
http://cordlessrenovations.com/store/product_info.php?products_id=341
Ralph
Shawn 7.4v may work for one of our little Porters, but will it be enough for the Two (2) motor blocks you’re gonna have to power?
C. Nelson said:Cal I dont know what will be enough. Im am clueless when it comes to this stuff. 7.4v 2200mAH means nothing to me nor do I understand it. This is why track power is so much better. LOL
Shawn 7.4v may work for one of our little Porters, but will it be enough for the Two (2) motor blocks you're gonna have to power?
it’s not better…ask Ralph…you’ll get it…did you decide on a Trail-car or you gonna try to go “on-board”…that will help us most with our opinions
c
Shawn said:Shawn, Check the links I gave you. Both are 14.8 volts. 2200mAH will give you plenty of run time. I ran the 2200mHA pack for 4 hours around the Christmas tree and had run it previously for several hours. RalphC. Nelson said:Cal I dont know what will be enough. Im am clueless when it comes to this stuff. 7.4v 2200mAH means nothing to me nor do I understand it. This is why track power is so much better. LOL
Shawn 7.4v may work for one of our little Porters, but will it be enough for the Two (2) motor blocks you're gonna have to power?
More volts = faster speed. More milliamphours (mAh) = longer run times.
http://www.all-battery.com/li-ionpacksandmodules.aspx
This is the page I start at. For most jobs, 14.8 volts is more than enough for me. In fact, most of my locos running off of a 14-volt pack rarely exceed more than half throttle because of the nature of the trains that I run. (Slow narrow gauge shortline.) The primary reason I use 14.8 volts is because the control electronics require 12 volts.
I would be willing to bet that 7.4 volts will be more than ample for your Climax project. For starters, they were very slow locos. Also, the gearing in the Aristo or HLW motor blocks is not all that different than the gearing in the Porters, so I’d imagine they’ll run probably at close to the same speeds.
Later,
K
Like Kevin said, the electronics you choose will come into play with the minimum voltage. Based on Kevin’ Porter, the Critter Control will run on 7.4V. My RailBoss requires 8V and Aristo’s older T/E’s (27 MHz) need a solid 12V. Someone will chime in with requirements for RCS.
One way to determine your voltage need is to use your track power and run the engine at the fastest you would like it to go. Then measure the voltage on the track. You will need a few volts more due to losses in the electronics.
If you go with Li-Ion the 2200mAh packs would probably give you plenty of run time.
All the RCS ESC’s that have used the 11 pin H Bridge motor driver IC require an absolute minimum of 12 volts at the screw terminals to operate.
A few older relay controlled RCS ESC’s did also require 12 volts.
Most other RCS ESC’s can work down to 7.2 volts including all of the current range.
Jon Radder said:
Like Kevin said, the electronics you choose will come into play with the minimum voltage. Based on Kevin' Porter, the Critter Control will run on 7.4V. My RailBoss requires 8V and Aristo's older T/E's (27 MHz) need a solid 12V. Someone will chime in with requirements for RCS.One way to determine your voltage need is to use your track power and run the engine at the fastest you would like it to go. Then measure the voltage on the track. You will need a few volts more due to losses in the electronics.
If you go with Li-Ion the 2200mAh packs would probably give you plenty of run time.
In regards to the minimum input voltage requirements for the RailBoss, I will soon be changing the spec to 7.0V instead of the current 8.0V. Nothing has changed in the circuit, the spec will just be less conservative. A 7.2V battery pack will drain down to about 6 volts at full discharge. The RailBoss will actually function at 6.0V as well. What happens internally, is the 5.0V voltage regulator starts to lose regulation; i.e. 5.0V will start sagging down, but the circuits will remain functional down to around 5.5V input. The RailBoss will also work quite nicely up to 30.0V. Not just specs, but hours of testing to back it up. And since I’m bragging, it will also handle a 5.0 Amp motor load over this entire input voltage range.
But check your voltage requirements, like Jon said. Run it on track power first, then you know for sure.
Thanks Del. I had my test bed wired up with only one 7.4V battery and I couldn’t get the Ready signal after the radio connected. I looked at the specs and, thinking it was a voltage thing, I hooked up a second battery for 14.8V. When it still didn’t go I check the wiring and noticed one wire from the radio had come loose. Put that back and all was fine. I never tried the single pack again. I may do that today now that I know it should work 
Thanks guys Im understanding this stuff a little better and the numbers etc… I will go with the 7.4v since I only plan on using the critter control and an on/off switch with it. I want to keep this very simple. Not sure about a trailing car yet all depends if I can fit it or not.
I got everything I needed to convert to battery/track power . So far I got all the wiring done on the climax. I set it up so I can go from track power to battery power using a switch. So far it workes. Next I am working on a battery car. Im building a flat car from scratch that will hold the battery underneath as well as the critter control and charging jack. The flat car will be a log car. Then I will add another switch for the charging jack. From that switch I will add the critter control. I am suprised how easy it was to do and how much more I understand things. I decided to use a battery car that way I can also hook my Big John up to battery and eventually all my other engines. Now I have the option to jump over to the dark side but still be able to stay on the other side.
Congratulations Shawn.
My prediction is that once the Dark Side has got you, there will be no going back.
Just like everyone else who jumps.
You will wonder why you ever bothered with track power in the first place. 